June 11, 2008 by
ryan
Whether you're creating a project for fun or freelancing (etc.),
working remotely as part of a team is becoming more and more common.
Communication is still key to a successful project, however, it's much
more difficult when your working with people in different locations and
on different schedules. Although, you will not be able to achieve the same
level of communication as face-to-face, there are some tools beyond
E-mail, IMs and Remote Desktop that could make your life a little
easier. Here are some of the tools I use when I'm not in the vicinity of as the team I'm working with.
Source Control
Obviously,
source control is a must-have. This is a given for development
projects; even if you're working by yourself. I use Subversion for all
of my code because it's relatively easy to set up and, for the most part,
pretty intuitive for newer users. When creating a source repository you
need to choose to:
- Host your own
- Go through a third party
- Assembla
-Although there are many options in this arena, this is the host that I
use for remote collaboration so it's the one I'm going to focus on. You
can set up a Subversion repository simply by adding a new project to
your workspace and specifying that you want to use subversion (in the
setup configuration). From there you can add users or make your project
open to the public. Apart from Subversion, there are many other features
that may make Assembla a worthwhile site to check into.
Finally when running Subversion, you're either going to need
an IDE that supports SVN, use the command line or download a client. I
use
Tortoise SVN and the command prompt, however,
Visual SVN for Visual
Studio looks nice (and when I'm using Eclipse, the SubVersion plugin is
wonderful).
Screen capture software
It
can be confusing trying to fix an issue based on a text description.
Having a screenshot or video that explains how to reproduce a bug can
be invaluable. Coupled with a bug tracking application, this can be an
extremely effective way to quickly resolve issues. Camtasia is
probably the ideal application for creating screen casts of a bug but
for the price tag it might be overkill (especially if it's just for fun
/ open source). Currently, I usually use Wink by Debug mode for this
sort of functionality. Although it's definitely not as feature rich as
Camtasia, it gets the job done.
Also see: Jing
Real-Time Collaboration
Some
situations require an extra level of involvement from team members.
Vyew has been an awesome addition to the tool belt. With it, I can
collaborate / share desktop / share files real time with someone else
anywhere in the world in. Similar to the screen capture application, it
really helps to communicate something that otherwise may be difficult to
explain. Earlier in the week, for example, I was having some trouble
with an Eclipse setting for a project I'm working on. Rather than sending e-mails back and forth trying to explain the issue, I used Vyew to
share my desktop with a friend half way across the country. In a
matter of minutes, he was able to diagnosis the problem and I was back in business. Vyew is free if you don't mind having ads on the page. Otherwise, it's $6.95/month for the Plus Package and $13.95/month the Professional version. For more information, vist the Vyew site or check-out Guy Kawasaki's synopsis of Vyew.
What tools do you use to stay connected with your team?